Subscription Center
Jun 9, 2009 04:00 PM | 8
The world will have to wait even longer to find out whether nuclear fusion will be a viable alternative energy source, it seems. Central experiments for the multibillion-dollar, yet-unbuilt International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), probably won't get underway until 2026, according to an Agence-France Presse (AFP) report, five years later than recent timelines indicated.
The ITER team has broken ground for the test site in Cadarache, France (near Marseille), which will run a smaller reactor "less complete than initially thought," a spokesperson for France's Atomic Energy Commission said in a press conference yesterday.
Even though construction is slated to start this year, plasma-driven experiments won't get going until 2018—and those would be lighter than planned, literally (using hydrogen rather than heavier tritium and deuterium, which will have to wait for 2026). Although fusing hydrogen is easier, the deuterium-tritium reaction has proved to be the most "efficient" in lab experiments (meaning the most energy is released at the lowest temperature), so it's the target combination. Temperatures will still need to be about 270 million degrees Fahrenheit (150 million Celsius) for the reaction to get going.
Fusion—the same process our sun uses to make energy—fuses together atoms using hot plasma, rather than breaking them apart (as in fission) or joining them at room temperature (as in cold fusion). Its proponents hail it as a safer and greener source of energy that would produce little hazardous waste.
Manufacturing for the reactor's nuts and bolts (or at least wires) is already under contract, notes World Nuclear News. A South Korean company has started making some of the 28 tons of niobium-tin wire it will supply for the reactor's magnets.
ITER is currently backed by seven governments and had an initial price tag of $13.8 billion—which may double by the time it's built, Nature reports. France and the E.U. will pick up half of the tab together, and the other partners (China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.) will be divvying up the rest. The project, which had its first design more than 20 years ago, seems to be on the cusp of liftoff, but, writes the Principal Deputy Director-General Norbet Holtkamp, "the details of the plan remain to be hammered out."
Listen to a podcast about nuclear fusion.
Map of the ITER location courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Tags:
nuclear fusion
More News Blog:
Next: Soon, there will be so much video on the Web we'll be talking about "zettabytes"
Previous: Can space-faring companies be entrusted with the Apollo program's history?
See what we're tweeting about
Deadline: Jul 14 2013
Reward: $1,000,000 USD
This is a Reduction-to-Practice Challenge that requires written documentation and&
Deadline: Jul 30 2013
Reward: $100,000 USD
The Seeker desires a method for producing pseudoephedrine products in such a way that it will be extremely difficult for clandestine che
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
8 Comments
Add CommentThe Polywell Fusion Reactor team is making progress at the cost of millions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLittle fusion don't get no respect.
By what criterion do you say that hydrogen is easier to fuse than deuterium and tritium? The cross-section is higher for the latter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHydrogen would take a long time to fuse as there is no direct way to fuse proton-proton fusion, except through with a carbon catalyst.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow by 2020 polywell fusion will be on the commercial market and these guys will still be messing around with construction details. Try talk-polywell.org to keep up on progress of the more credible fusion solution
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi sure hope you`re right, mlorrey. Promising so far, i hope tests on the WB8 will be as successful as they were on the WB7 prototype!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI sure hope you`re right, mlorrey. I hope the results from the WB8 are going to be as successful as they were on the WB7 prorotype!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes this mean that Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility has a good chance to beat ITER to producing the first controlled nuclear fusion reaction?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder why there is so much fuss about the price ticket of $14Bn,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisspread out over various countries and several decades. At the end
of the day this is still one of the few good shots at solving the global
energy problem (and the related geopolitical and pollution problems)
for the price of about 10 large sports stadiums, or a squadron of
B2 bombers. Admitted, poly-well fusion deserves some serious
funding as well, since its conceptually sound and better suited for
a-neutronic types of fusion.